St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-24
THE TROU BILE IN FRANCE.

The trouble in France is due as much
to the faulty construction of the French
constitution as it is to the mercurial and
excitable nature of the French. Though
a republic i'll name, France has yet
much to learn regarding true repub-
licaniSm.
She has been too long a monarchy to
unlearn at once the lessons of centuries,
and it is just such crises as the one she
Is now passing through that help to
show her the way to the desired goal.
In the first place, the president has little
real independence. His hands are
virtually tied behind his back. Sus-
ceptible at any time to legislative inter-
ference, with a cabinet dependent upon
the good will of the deputies for its
continuance, and jointly responsible
with them for any piece of govern
mental legislation. his position in times
of excitement is indeed precariOus
one.
The present combination of circum-
stances leading to President CREWS
enforced resignation is something with
which he has had nothing to do. Even
his enemies do not assert that he has
had any connection with the traffic in
decorations and contracts through which
his son-in-law, NJ. WILSON, has become
diSgraced. But in some undefinable
way, eXplicabIe only to the French,
GREvY is held responsible and must
pay the penalty by removing himself
from the Office he has administered so
well. The excitement is growing daily,
and the occurrence of some dramatic sur
prise may be expected at any moment.
France is nothing if not dramatic. and
with her it is the unexpected that al
ways happens.
But there is little fear of a revolution
in the sense of the revolution of 1913.
The reign of the proletariat can hardly
again exist. There is no longer ROBES
PIERRE, a DANToN or MARAT to hold
the lives of thousands in the hOllows of
their hands and to institute another
reign of horror and butchery. Society
is too highly organized now to allow an
other series of events like that which
preceded and followed the fall of
Louis XVI. to exist. There may be a
revolutiOn-France is rather fond of
them-but it will not be the rule of the
anarchist.
If there is an Overturning at all-and
France seems to have tired little of
her republic-it might be that the long
deferred hopes of the BOnapartists will
have their fruition. Once before, after
the election of President IMAGINATION,
with the support of the OrleaniSts, the
Count de ChambOrd might have
restored the monarchy had he
not been too exacting; and now,
but fifteen years later, the same oppOr-
tunity may again present itself to Prince
VICTOR NAPOLEON, the representative
of the Bonapartists. The monarchal
feeling is not dead in France, it is only
sleeping. Should it spread among the
people, the deputies could do nothing
but bow to the popular will, and would
indeed prefer, as patriotic Frenchmen,
that conclusion to the supremacy of the
commune.
AS the downfall Of the monarchy and
the erection of the presidency with MAC
MAHoN at its head in 1873 was readily
accepted, so, if the popular chord We're
struck, would be its restoration received.
1t will need man with the wisdom and
patriotism of a MIRABEAU to steer the
Republic of France through the sea of
trouble now surrounding it, and from all